BYU LB took winding path from Africa to NFL prospect

Ezekiel “Ziggy” Ansah didn’t know a thigh pad from a knee pad when he showed up for BYU’s spring football practice in 2010. A helmet was completely foreign to him, and when he covered a kick for the first time he bolted down the field, unaware that the guy he needed to tackle was the one with the ball.

Ansah didn’t even know if he wanted to play football.

The Cougars coaches were salivating over Ansah’s size (6-feet-6, 250 pounds) and speed (200 yards in under 22 seconds), but he had come to Provo, Utah, from his native Ghana with designs on playing pro basketball. He was not keen on this new sport’s violence.

“Oh man, it was hard,” Ansah recalled on Monday on the field at Helix High, where BYU conducted its first local practice in preparation for Thursday’s matchup with San Diego State in the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl. “It was a new game, a new sport. It’s a different way to run. Your conditioning level has to be really high.

“It was pretty tough in the beginning.”

The trials have been overcome with Ansah’s athleticism and intelligence, and the ferocious linebacker the Aztecs will have to contain at Qualcomm Stadium has become one of the hottest prospects for the next NFL draft in April.

“It’s pretty remarkable,” said BYU outside linebackers coach Kelly Poppinga, “to be able to see a guy go from knowing nothing two and half a years ago to being one of the best players in the country.”

Ansah, who now weighs 270, wasn’t on most draft watch lists at the season’s outset because he wasn’t even a starter. Now he’s projected as a possible first-rounder. On a BYU defense that ranks third in the nation, he’s commanded attention over the past nine games, ranking third on the team in that span in tackles, second in sacks and first in tackles for loss with 13.

“Right now, he’s the buzz of the NFL for the upcoming draft,” NFL Network and NBC analyst Mike Mayock said on a telecast earlier this season.

“He has all the numbers they want to see at the combine. He’ll blow that part away,” Poppinga said. “And then when they get him in the classroom, he’ll excel because he’ll be able to show them how much he knows.”

Ansah’s is a remarkable story of reaching crossroads and choosing the path of most benefit. Five years ago in Ghana he met and was baptized by a BYU student, Ken Frei, who was on a mission. The two shared a love for basketball, and Frei convinced Ansah to live with him in Provo and try out for BYU’s basketball team.

Ansah wasn’t the second coming of Jimmer Fredette, however, and got cut twice. He was running track when the football coaches got reports about the big guy who could motor.

What he lacked in experience, Ansah more than made up for in effort and brain power. His major is actuarial science with a minor in math. Poppinga swears Ansah has an almost photographic memory. The coach said he could play all three of the down linemen positions, as well as both outside linebacker spots.

Soft-spoken, with a wide, engaging smile, Ansah doesn’t seem very excited to talk about himself. He deflects questions about his achievements to the quality of the BYU coaching and effort of his teammates.

What Ansah cannot deny is the inspiring nature of his story, and its powerful uniqueness. Does he find the journey strange?

“I wouldn’t use the word strange,” he corrected. “It’s unbelievable. I never thought I would be in this position in my life. I’m in it. I’ve just got to enjoy the moment.”